Torch arrives in Japan under tight security
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan called for calm, but braced for trouble, at its leg of the Olympic torch relay as the flame arrived under tight security on Friday, after emotional scenes at the relay's other venues around the world.
The relay ahead of the Beijing Games in August has provoked protests against China's rights record, especially in Tibet, as well as patriotic rallies by Chinese who say the West has vilified Beijing unfairly.
The flame is meant to transmit a message of peace and friendship, but its journey has been largely turned into a political event and the torch has been granted the sort of security usually reserved for state leaders.
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura called for calm during Saturday's leg of the relay.
"I hope this torch relay will take place peacefully in an atmosphere where everyone can celebrate," he told a news conference.
In Nagano, central Japan, the venue for the next leg of the torch relay on Saturday, spectators will be barred from the opening and closing ceremonies.
The torch will be guarded by up to 4,000 police, media said, with riot police and another 100 regular officers set to shield torch-bearers in two rows, shrouding the runners from sight.
They will be joined by two Chinese "flame attendants," although Japan has made it clear Chinese paramilitary guards who have been criticized elsewhere as being heavy-handed in their guarding of the torch would not be welcome.
About 2,000 Chinese students from across Japan planned to travel to Nagano, media said, carrying Chinese and Japanese flags and wearing matching T-shirts to show support for the relay.
Pro-Tibet groups were expected to hold a prayer service early on Saturday for those who died in the recent unrest in Tibet before the relay on Saturday at the historic Zenkoji temple, which earlier withdrew as the kick-off site for the event.
The pro-Tibet groups would then congregate for a peaceful protest near the relay, which will pass through shopping streets and an ice-skating rink used during the 1998 Winter Games.
China has called the global torch relay a "journey of harmony" in the run-up the Beijing Games in August, but the flame has become a magnet for anti-China protests.
In London, Paris and San Francisco, torch bearers were jostled by anti-Beijing protesters as they ran. The demonstrations stirred nationalistic sentiment in China, and prompted calls from some Chinese to boycott foreign businesses.
In the last leg in Canberra, more than 10,000 Chinese Australians staged a pro-Beijing rally, drowning out pro-Tibet demonstrators with calls of "One China."
On Friday, Vietnam state-run radio reported that Hanoi had expelled a U.S. citizen of Vietnamese origin on accusations of planning anti-Chinese protests at next week's Olympics torch relay in Ho Chi Minh City.
(Additional reporting by Linda Sieg and Yoko Kubota; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)
("Countdown to Beijing Olympics" blog at
http://blogs.reuters.com/china)
